Month: March 2020

Revitalization and revival

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is bigger than you think. It’s not in a frame hanging in a museum. In fact, it’s larger than life, measuring twenty-three feet tall and twenty-nine feet wide, painted on a wall in a convent in Milan, Italy. It’s not only bigger than you expect, it’s been a big challenge to maintain. 

When da Vinci painted what is now one of the world’s most recognizable masterpieces, he unwisely chose materials that generations have struggled to maintain. For instance, the plaster on the wall and the paint itself started chipping and fading during the painter’s lifetime. Multiple inadequate attempts at restoring the original color and beauty of the artwork, in most cases, made it worse. Then in 1999, about five hundred years after da Vinci completed the fresco, a multi-year restoration project was completed. Today, the latest attempt at maintaining the art, involving 21st century air filtration technology installed at the church, is currently underway. 

Why have so many people for so many centuries worked so hard and spent so much money to restore da Vinci’s work? Put simply, the value of the work demands it. It cannot be replaced, so it must be restored. 

The church of Jesus is like that in a way. It can never be replaced, but it can be revived when dying, restored when damaged and revitalized when declining. The value of the church is incalculable, so restoring it, reviving it and seeing it revitalized is worth our best effort. Today about 80 percent of our Southern Baptist churches are stalled or declining. It’s a staggering number. While the Southern Baptist Convention has properly focused a lot of training, money and effort on church planting, there is a renewed effort today at revitalizing existing churches. How important is church revitalization? The statistics tell the story. Of our 47,500 Southern Baptist churches, only slightly less than 700 of them were started last year. No matter how generous we are with the math, we quickly realize that at least more than 40,000 churches are existing churches, and 80 percent, or at least 32,000, of them are plateaued or are in decline. Church revitalization is an urgent concern.  

Many of our SBTC churches are existing churches that can benefit from what we’re learning today about church revitalization. Imagine hundreds of existing churches in Texas—currently in decline—experiencing a reversal of that trend. Imagine hundreds of our churches starting to grow again. The change could come if churches admit the need and seek the help. 

Fortunately, the SBTC is a leader in church revitalization. For instance, on our SBTC website you can find our SBTC Church Revitalization app. It contains videos, book reviews, forms and a lot of other material to help pastors lead their churches through a church revitalization process. Your own church prayer ministry, the preaching ministry, leadership, evangelism, discipleship and many other existing ministries, when properly focused and renewed, can help revitalize your church. The SBTC Church Revitalization resources can help.

Our churches can get healthy, and they can grow again. And like the famous restorations of da Vinci’s Last Supper, our churches are worth the investment it takes to revive them. Perhaps more importantly, our churches—revived and revitalized—are a gift to the communities where they exist. A revitalized, revived church is a brilliant testimony to the miracle-working power of our God and a bright light in the darkness for souls who will be saved through the ministries of our churches. Through the SBTC you can find numerous models of revitalization, including assistance with mergers, replanting, covenant revitalization, consultant lead, spiritual renewal and more. 

Pastors, don’t hesitate to get help. Let’s work together to see our churches revitalized. Contact the SBTC. The greatest restored masterpiece in your community won’t be a da Vinci painting; it will be the church awakened and alive again! 

Jesus is alive

April 12th is Easter Sunday! Everything changed on that day nearly 2,000 years ago. Jesus, the God-man, had died on the cross. His lifeless body had been in the tomb for three days and nights. But on Sunday morning, Jesus came out of the grave never to die again. He guarantees anyone who comes to him in repentance and faith the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. 

When the apostle Paul spoke of the “hope of the resurrection” (Acts 23:6) he was not using the word “hope” as we do in our common vernacular. If I say that I “hope” the Rangers will win the World Series that might be wishful thinking. Biblical “hope” is a confident expectation. Biblical hope is a factual reality that has not been realized yet.

American Christianity is being put to the test. As I am writing this we are in the midst of a cataclysmic disaster facing this country. Yet we have been here before. In the Civil War there were over 600,000 deaths in a five-year span. The 1918 influenza epidemic killed almost 700,000 Americans. The Great Depression of 1929 devastated the U.S. economy. Half of all banks failed. Unemployment rose to 25 percent and homelessness increased. Housing prices plummeted 30 percent, international trade collapsed by 65 percent, and prices fell 10 percent per year. It took 25 years for the stock market to recover. This is not to minimize the seriousness of the current situation, but Americans have seen worse.

As believers, this should be a wakeup call for us. While there is nothing wrong with having nice things, we can now put them in perspective. We are to be good stewards of the possessions God has loaned to us. We are to take care of our health because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This crisis also calls us back to sound doctrine. The false claims of the prosperity gospel preachers ring hollow today. I saw where one health and wealth church called off a “healing” service due to the coronavirus. The stark reality of living in a sin cursed world causes false teaching to collapse.

What are we to do if we lost our savings, business, health or even a loved one due to the coronavirus? As followers of Jesus we are to turn to the promise of God. Romans 15:13 says, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Now is the time for our faith to go on the offensive.

Dive into God’s Word. Let it bring you comfort. Spend time in prayer as never before. Seek the Lord’s face—not just his hand of blessing. Share Good News. People are fearful. Depression paralyzes those without hope. We have the message of hope in Jesus. Even in social distancing we need each other. Reconnect with friends and family through electronic means. Make this a time of renewing old friendships and strengthening family ties. 

When all is taken away, we have the Lord. Remember everything changed 2,000 years ago. The hope of the resurrection is not wishful thinking. It is the confident expectation that our Risen Lord will be with us through this life and we will be with him in the life to come. 

SBTC DR volunteers prepare to serve

In response to COVID-19, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers are preparing to serve with the North American Mission Board’s Send Relief network to meet the needs of populations affected by coronavirus shut downs, quarantines and medical facility overload. 

Food distribution, especially for vulnerable people, may become a priority as quarantines are expanded. 

Scottie Stice, SBTC DR director, informed DR task force members of measures under consideration at a meeting conducted March 19 via Zoom. 

Stice said that Texas Division of Emergency Management was coordinating closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working on multiple scenarios should the virus escalate and health facilities become overwhelmed.

“We pray that God gives us wisdom for how to respond,” Stice said, admitting that traditional mass feeding protocols would have to be adjusted because most volunteers are in high-risk age groups.

Stice referenced the Mar. 18 Baptist Press article which reported that the CDC contacted Southern Baptist Disaster Relief leadership on Mar. 12 to discuss engaging volunteers to assist in response efforts nationally. (See http://www.bpnews.net/54484/southern-baptists-organize-to-help-amid-covid19-crisis.)

“This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to be the church,” said Sam Porter, national SBDR director, adding that as needs arise, “Local state emergency management agencies will reach out to our national SBDR staff, and we will connect those agencies to the appropriate contacts in their state.” 

Stice asked all task force members to contact churches in their areas to see if the congregations would be able to provide volunteers for food preparation, distribution and medication delivery, which will all be conducted in compliance with state and CDC guidelines, including safe distancing.

The task force discussed options for deploying SBTC DR’s mass feeding kitchen units, including the fact that food distribution during Hurricane Harvey had included drive-through deliveries.

Stice also stated the need to encourage younger volunteers to undergo online disaster relief training, especially now that schools and colleges are closed and they may have time to do so.

The introductory SBTC DR course is available free of charge to individuals age 18 and above who are members of a Southern Baptist church. Visit https://sbtexas.com/disaster-relief/#training and click on the “training” link to access the course. 

Worried? Phone an SBTC Chaplain

Meanwhile, to care for spiritual concerns in these uncertain times, trained SBTC DR chaplains are available to speak with the public via a toll-free hotline: 1-800-921-3287 that will be operational from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday throughout the crisis, with voicemail capability after hours.

Small town churches face coronavirus challenges

Churches in small towns are changing plans in light of tightening local and federal government guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Such guidelines, which have been changing frequently, pose challenges for small town churches used to congregating weekly for worship and socialization and that can sometimes be, with typical Texas resilience, determined in times of crisis.

“The older population at high risk is the one that gets out and goes to church because that’s what you are supposed to do,” said Terry Bunch, pastor of East Side Baptist Church in Haskell, north of Abilene.

At the time of writing this story on Mar. 17, no COVID-19 cases had been found in Haskell or surrounding counties. Nor had any surfaced in Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt or Madison counties, the areas served by the other churches contacted by the TEXAN for this article.

All pastors indicated they were maintaining close contact with local government, law enforcement and school authorities—important for any ministry but especially so for those in contexts where everyone knows each other. 

East Side, which usually runs around 75, held services Mar. 15 with 50 in attendance. Midweek services and youth activities were canceled, along with monthly ministries to nursing home patients and special needs adults. 

Church services will be decided “week to week,” Bunch said, and East Side is accelerating its ability to livestream services with new equipment. The church expects to be ready by this Sunday, Mar. 22.

Deacons have been canvassing shut-ins and at-risk members to assess needs and deliver groceries and supplies.

Cornerstone Baptist, East Side’s sister church across Haskell, sent deacons with care packages including disinfectant and other supplies to visit shut-ins, Bunch added.

“Our world is broken,” he said. “God is not surprised about this. We shouldn’t be either. People need hope. That’s the Jesus part. We are called to be ministers in this time so we take hope, encouragement, and we will take them toilet paper if we can find it.”

For Harbor Baptist Church in Payne Springs near Cedar Creek Lake, services for the congregation of 50 continued Mar. 15 with adjustments as members spread out in the sanctuary, according to pastor George Yarger.

“We’re not touching or hugging. We are foot bumping,” Yarger said after the Mar. 15 service. The church has stocked up on toilet paper, too, and is offering it via Facebook Messenger to those in need.

Yarger is exploring methods for online giving, and in the meantime he is encouraging members to mail in their offerings “so your church will be here when this is over.”

He said he remembers older people in his early congregations who told him of losing family members to the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Grace Community Church, a congregation of 120 in nearby Mabank, has restructured Sunday worship beginning Mar. 22.

“Our plan is to cancel the corporate Sunday worship at church, but this doesn’t mean we are canceling church,” said pastor Michael Cooper.

Although area internet limitations preclude livestreaming, members will open their homes for small groups which will read Scripture, sing and watch Cooper’s recorded sermon.

The Grace Care Team, which focuses on ministering to shut-ins, is contacting older members and offering to assist with groceries and medications. 

“Something will come up and we will stand ready,” Cooper said, adding that members may help with an expanded Meals on Wheels program local officials are exploring. 

Meanwhile, Grace Community’s parking lot is among several drop-off points for Mabank ISD as the district provides breakfasts and lunches to underprivileged students during the hiatus from school.

Michael Criner, pastor of Brownsboro’s Rock Hill Baptist Church, said, “Like many churches, we have made plans, changed plans and then re-planned those plans.”

Rock Hill, which runs about 900, is going online, providing multiple Sunday worship services accessible via the church website with DVDs prepared for others. Small groups will connect via Zoom while staff, deacons and group leaders stay in contact with membership.

“Our main fear is isolation for our most vulnerable,” Criner said.

Finances are another concern.

“We are providing outlets for individuals who need assistance, but also avenues for people to contribute to our church,” Criner said, adding that the crisis is causing Rock Hill to develop technological resources to help families spiritually.

“We want to rest in the truth that [God] is working all things together for the good of those who love him. Now, we get to experience that kind of trust,” Criner said.

The church, which is a Mabank ISD meal drop-off point, is modifying how it distributes food at its monthly community food bank to adhere to CDC guidelines.

Northeast of College Station, First Baptist Madisonville, a multigenerational church of 350 under the leadership of pastor Joshua Crutchfield, is also adjusting to the new normal.

“We are coming up with contingency plans,” Crutchfield said, noting that the church already livestreams all its services.

First Madisonville is exploring ways to stay connected with the congregation should church go completely online for an extended time, including developing resources for family worship at home. Crutchfield will post Wednesday night’s recorded sermon on social media. Small group gatherings may be encouraged.

“Some of the seriousness is starting to set in on people,” Crutchfield said. “It’s hard to know what to expect. That’s why they call it novel. We are taking measured, meditated steps, focusing on safeguarding our people.”

First Madisonville is also ready to help the community, offering a grocery shopping service to shut-ins throughout town. 

Crutchfield said he hopes the church will “provide some sense of normalcy in times that are anything but normal.”

GuideStone waives telemedicine co-pays for 90 days for members in health plans

DALLAS—Telemedicine has proven to be an effective way to seek medical attention during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In response, GuideStone® participants in a U.S.-based Highmark BCBS health plan—including our Comprehensive, SecureHealth and HSA-qualified High Deductible Health Plans—can access Teladoc™ at no co-pay through June 14, 2020.

SecureHealth and all other comprehensive health plan participants are always able to access Teladoc with no co-pay.

This waiver for other health plans remains in effect for 90 days from March 14 and is only available to participants located within the United States and on a Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. GuideStone health plan participants internationally on Cigna Global have access to telehealth services through the Cigna WellBeing app—the standard telemedicine service available through Cigna at no co-pay.

“We are pleased to be able to offer this benefit to all of the pastors, church staff, their families and others through our health plans,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said. “The safest place to be when you’re sick is in your home. Telemedicine provides access to board-certified doctors who can ensure you get the care you need without overwhelming urgent care and emergency departments.”

GuideStone health plan participants can register for Teladoc at Member.Teladoc.com/GuideStone.

GuideStone is encouraging all of its participants to register for Teladoc right away. Participants will be required to answer a few medical questions and provide account information. Having the registration information completed will speed up access time in the event that they do need to use the service.

For more information on COVID-10 and Teladoc resources, visit Teladoc.com/Coronavirus.

City churches work to keep community while serving their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

As current federal guidelines recommend public gatherings be limited to 10 people in an effort to “flatten the curve” and reduce the burden of COVID-19 on the healthcare system, churches of all sizes are challenged to maintain community while serving their broader communities.

Churches are also seeing a rare opportunity to speak gospel truth into a fearful culture.

“There has never been an easier time to instill hope or to talk about Christ than right now,” said Bruce Northam, pastor of Houston’s Clay Road Baptist Church.

The TEXAN interviewed pastors of medium to large churches in Amarillo, Austin, Houston and the Metroplex about how they are faring as sanctuary doors close temporarily, services are livestreamed, children are homeschooled and members mostly stay at home.

The pastors interviewed felt strongly about respecting government authorities. Otherwise, our “public witness would be hampered,” said Andrew Hebert, pastor of Amarillo’s Paramount Baptist, confirming his church’s commitment to cooperating with the city.

Cooperation is a matter of being a “good neighbor,” said Tom Goodman, pastor of Austin’s Hillcrest Baptist, adding, “The book of Jeremiah says to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. One way we can do that is to practice social distancing. Now it’s been mandated. We’ll take the lead.”

When church is online

“The coronavirus has forced us to get creative in using technology and digital [platforms] in ways we should have already been doing,” said Spencer Plumlee, pastor of First Baptist Mansfield. Church is online now and life groups will meet remotely via Zoom. 

Like other churches, Tate Springs Baptist of Arlington has suspended all on-campus programs until Easter. But church continues. Last week’s livestream accessible on Facebook and through the church website had 1,500 views, three times the number of regular attenders, said Pastor Jared Wellman.

For Tate Springs, the question was, “How can we do first century church in a twenty-first century context,” Wellman explained, noting that the early church met in small groups in the face of persecution.

“Then it was persecution from people. Now it’s a virus,” Wellman said, emphasizing the importance of using technology to remind members the church is still serving them, albeit at a distance. Staff members are developing age-specific content such as Bible studies for parents and kids to be shared online weekly.

Austin’s Hillcrest Baptist is personalizing its online experience, engaging as many members as possible by encouraging people to tune in to the Sunday morning service at the normal worship time of 10 a.m., even though the content will be available later.

To make livestreamed church interactive and inclusive, Goodman said lay readers will read Scripture, either coming to church for the filming or sending videos from their own homes. During services, members will be encouraged to post comments on the Facebook video feed, and send texts or messages to staff members who will read them during announcements. 

“We want to get our people to interact with one another, which they do intuitively during church,” Goodman said. 

Hebert said Paramount abandoned elaborate plans for multiple on-site small services as Amarillo’s restrictions tightened, opting to go fully online.

“This is a moment where every church is going to have to figure this out in its own way and in its context,” Hebert added.

Staying in contact

Churches are using websites and social media platforms to post valuable information for their congregations, including updates on the pandemic.

As part of one livestreamed service, Goodman will interview a health care professional who attends the church so members can ask questions about the COVID-19 crisis. 

Like other churches, Sagamore Baptist Church of Fort Worth is posting COVID-19 information and information to help congregants stay connected, Pastor Denny Gorena said.

To keep members engaged, staff will post links for digital offerings such as the online women’s Bible study, AWANA and student ministries, Gorena added.

Churches are also employing old-fashioned ways of staying in touch with members. At Tate Springs, small group leaders are checking in with their members every three days via phone or text while deacons and staff contact shut-ins.

While activity on Austin’s Anderson Mill Baptist’s website has spiked, Pastor Rod Minor said that deacons are also contacting the families assigned to them weekly. An online link enables people to submit prayer requests to staff, replacing the written ones members typically leave at church.

“We don’t want to lose the opportunity to pray for them,” Minor said.

Other churches are also employing the traditional Baptist “deacon family” method of discipleship. Clay Road’s demographic includes many members with no relatives or children. The church is their family, and Northam is concerned that the isolation might be worse than the disease for them. Church volunteers will be tasked with staying in touch with 3-5 people during the crisis to make sure their needs are met.

All pastors indicated volunteers were prepared to bring groceries or medications to shut-ins as needed.

A rare opportunity

COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges, including financial ones. All interviewed pastors said their churches were either set up for online giving or soon to be. At least two were mailing pre-addressed, stamped offering envelope to members to make giving easier.

The loss of accessibility to the churches becomes a loss to each broader community as well. The churches all have active presences in their cities, with some hosting day cares, community groups and recovery groups. All that has ended for now.

The crisis offers rare opportunities for ministry.

“Church is not something you do. It’s who you are. Now is the time to be the church more than ever,” Wellman said.

“The church runs to the front lines not from it,” in times of crisis, said Hebert. “We start hospitals and minister to the sick. Some of that may be coming, he noted, if churches end up opening their facilities as healthcare is overwhelmed.

Anderson Mill’s is exploring how to retool its monthly food pantry to allow for safe and possibly more frequent food distribution.

“So many people are at home. They are going to be out of work. We may find more interest among people to pick up food and necessities,” Minor said. 

With the approach of Easter—with its traditional “heightened sense of spirituality”—amid the crisis, Northam said he and his wife have prayed with more people in the community—at stores and deserted airports—in the last few days than in the last few months. 

People are afraid. They want to talk.

Northam has been stopped in grocery stores by people who ask if he is afraid.

“No, I am not afraid because we serve a sovereign God,” he answers, sharing the gospel and praying with people he has never met before and is unlikely to see again … unless in heaven.

How to preach to an empty room

Here are some thoughts that I’m keeping in mind as I preach for video. I hope they’ll be of help to other preachers:

1. Make your delivery as personal as you can. The camera never blinks and it exaggerates how you communicate nonverbally. You will connect better with your listeners by doing the things that make for effective one-on-one communication.

Smile. Maximize your eye contact with the camera. Use minimal notes, if any at all. Aim for a delivery style that is less oratorical and more conversational.

2. Keep in mind how people will be watching you. Preaching for video is different from preaching to a live congregation in that it is not really public communication. Instead, it is more intimate and interpersonal. Many of your people will be watching you by themselves on a computer or handheld device. Some may watch with their families or a very small group.

When making your video, I’d caution against pretending you are preaching to a congregation. Walking around on the platform or being behind a pulpit will seem artificial. Instead, imagine that you are talking to one person. Use second-person singular language—say “you” and “your”—and make application of your message to individuals.

3. Acknowledge the current situation, but don’t dwell on it exclusively. No doubt, we need to continue to pray for God’s intervention in the coronavirus pandemic every week as our churches gather online. Pastors need to bring a word that calls our people to trust God in the face of this crisis. At the same time, our people are being bombarded with messages about the coronavirus every way they turn.

When you speak, they need to hear a word from God that will strengthen their faith. Your listeners always will benefit spiritually from hearing expositional messages from the whole counsel of Scripture, especially as the weeks wear on.

4. Preach live, if possible. While time or technological restraints may require you to pre-record your sermon, broadcasting the message in real time on Sunday morning is best.

After our first week of online-only worship, one couple contacted me to say that they had watched both our Sunday morning services, and they were surprised and thankful that I preached twice, rather than just replaying the first message in the second service. There’s a sense of immediacy when your people can tell you are actually preaching to them in the moment. And they can tell.

5. Relax. Speaking to a camera without an audience to support you and respond is hard. When you misspeak or mess up—don’t worry, you will—shake it off and keep going just as you would in live sermon delivery in front of a congregation.

Your people are not expecting perfection. They do want to hear from and see their pastor and receive God’s Word from you.

6. Present the Gospel and give opportunities for people to respond. Joining your church’s livestream service is a low-risk way for nonbelievers to listen to preaching. They don’t have to come to church, they have relative anonymity, and they can turn you off whenever they want! As a result, you would be wise to assume that unsaved people are watching.

Make sure you proclaim the gospel clearly and provide a way for people to respond who make decisions or have questions or prayer needs. Simply listing an email address or a phone number to call can open doors for ministry.

We can thank God for the opportunity we have to preach to our people via video during the social distancing that the coronavirus requires right now. To my fellow preachers who are preaching to empty rooms, I say:

Be biblical. Be faithful. Be relational. Be genuine. Be prayerful. Be vulnerable. Be encouraging. And be encouraged. We know that God is using even this to accomplish something for his glory.

Stephen Rummage is the senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

Amid coronavirus restrictions, Texas church switches to “drive-in movie style” service

MONTGOMERY—As pastors across the country wrestle with how to handle services during the COVID-19 crisis, Texas pastor Chris Gober wanted to strike the balance between keeping his congregation safe and bringing them together as a unified family.

For First Montgomery Baptist Church, this meant switching their regular Mar. 22 Sunday service plans to an outdoor “drive-in movie style” approach. The church, which draws about 300 people each week, invited members to pull their cars onto the church’s property for their 10:45a.m. service and listen to the sermon on their radio with the help of an FM transmitter. The idea is similar to the service held Mar. 15 by David Fork Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, reported by WKYT. 

“I was just asking God how in the world can we keep our church unified and maintain the family feel of our church in the middle of all of this, and this is what came to mind,” Gober told the TEXAN as he was planning that week’s Sunday service.  

Using the church’s five-acre field adjacent to the church building, he said the church would set up a few well-spaced chairs in the front for some who may feel more comfortable getting out of their vehicles. And then behind those chairs, people could park their cars and listen to the sermon with others while remaining more isolated.

The service will allow people to “participate at the level they feel comfortable in,” he said. While Gober acknowledges there is value to watching services on live stream, he noted that an online service doesn’t involve the same family feel. 

“With livestream you don’t get the same sense of community as you do when you’re in proximity,” he said. “And if this is going to last for two months, we need a better solution.”

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Mar. 17, the state had confirmed 132 cases. And Montgomery County, Gober said, has requested that groups stay to less than 50.

 “We feel like this is within those guidelines if you can maintain the isolation within your car,” he said, “Because you won’t actually come into contact with anyone except the people in your car, which were in your home to begin with.”

Gober said he looked forward to delivering the message that will focus on how God, not man, is in control.

“What’s amazing is we plan our sermons for the year in January,” he said. “And it is the perfect sermon for this week.”

Most people live “under the illusion of control,” the pastor said.

“We feel like we’re in control of our lives and often that results in us drifting from God,” he said. “But times like this are often the times where we see the reality that we’re not in control. And it’s the perfect time to lean into God, not to lean away from God.”

The pastor hopes the drive-in movie style service will help spark more creative ideas for other churches as they navigate the coronavirus crisis. 

“I feel like this is a real opportunity for the church,” Gober said. “We can do great ministry within the body and with the community if we can help those who choose to isolate, who are at risk, by serving them, running errands for them, dropping things off for them without making contact. 

“We can help keep our at-risk people safe by serving them … the way the church has done throughout history,” he added. “The Christians are the ones who rush in and help, and I think we can do that again today.”

Church Worship in a Time of “Social Distancing”

With the continuing development of our country’s efforts at controlling the spread of COVID-19, and with the most current release from the Center for Disease Prevention recommending cancelling or postponing gatherings of 50 people or more, churches are feeling the need to get creative with weekly worship services. It is important for the church to gather regularly to draw near to God, hold on to the confession of faith and watch out for one another within the gathered covenant community (Hebrews 10:19-25). But like many other seasons of church history, current events are challenging us to find creative ways to do this.

Much has been written lately on reasons for gathering, and on avoiding judgmental or condemnatory remarks toward your pastor or other churches’ decisions as we all try to navigate this season with both faith and thoughtfulness. I echo these sentiments. Here I hope to offer some practical ideas for the church who would like to comply with the CDC’s recommendation without neglecting the privilege of gathering together in weekly worship. Here are some considerations as you navigate these waters in your church context. One size will not fit all, but perhaps one of these will be a workable solution for you, or perhaps it will give you an idea on which to build toward creating your own contextualized solution.

1. Meet in groups of 50 or fewer in multiple rooms on your church campus. If your campus has a number of medium-sized rooms, set up chairs for 50 or fewer and have separate worship services on your campus in these rooms. I imagine you have several musicians who can divide up between the gatherings and lead smaller, simpler worship sets with songs everyone knows by heart. Pastor, consider sharing your sermon notes with several capable men in your congregation and having them preach/teach live in each venue. Or, livestream (Facebook or YouTube) the video of the sermon and have someone plug their phone into the TV/Screen in the other venues so they can watch the sermon together live after singing in their smaller spaces.

2. Organize in-home worship groups and send the congregation out between them. Church staff and lay leaders can lead several smaller worship services, including music and preaching, from house to house using the same sermon text or sermon notes for each gathering space. Or, scale down the on-campus gathering to only the worship team, tech team and pastor then livestream the whole service and have smaller, in-home groups put the livestream feed on a TV where they all watch and participate together.

3. Encourage guided family worship. The pastor can record a 15-20 minute sermon/devotional video on his smartphone and post it online Sunday morning, or send it via email and dropbox (or some other cloud storage space) to church membership; each family can gather by themselves, in their homes on Sunday morning, and watch the video. If the video is not an option for you, consider producing a family worship guide. Include specific Scripture readings, worship song suggestions with YouTube links, and an organized devotional guide with discussion questions geared toward all ages. In this way, families are worshipping in their own homes, but the church family is being guided in the same spiritual direction by the church leadership.

4. Communicate clear pathways for faithful giving. Most church members want to know how they can continue to give their tithes and offerings as an act of worship. If your congregation has a platform for online giving, share it regularly with the people. Also encourage regular giving through mail-in offerings if they would rather use this vehicle. Some can give online and others cannot. Create pathways and communicate those pathways clearly and regularly. The act of faithful, sacrificial giving is no less worshipful when it is done electronically or through snail-mail than when it is placed in an offering plate as it passes by.

5. If you need help, reach out. The church is really good at coming together during times like this. If you need help setting up video livestreaming, find a sister church in your area that is doing livestreaming well and call them. I am 100 percent sure they would be willing to come and help you get set up. Call your associational office or your state convention and ask for someone who can help you set up video livestreaming or help you think through specific contextual challenges. We’re on the same team. We are one family on one mission. The church shines brightly in seasons such as this. If you need help, ask. And watch how the Lord will build relational bridges that may last a lifetime between you and your sister congregations.

The church has been gathering in small groups and “from house to house” for millennia. In itself, this is not a tragedy nor does it need to be devastating. If you feel it is best to reorganize your weekly gatherings into smaller groups, get creative and get to work. You can do this. And you just might experience some unexpected wins along the way.

New leaders will rise to the occasion when given the opportunity. Families may learn to worship together for the first time. Neighbors, friends, and coworkers may be more likely to gather in the homes of someone they know than in a large facility where they feel singled out. You might find that using technology in worship is easier and more beneficial than you thought. And you just might see the body of Christ mobilized and energized like never before.

The very gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus’s church. With this biblical conviction, COVID-19 presents much more of an opportunity than a threat. Let’s show the world what it looks like for Jesus’s church to lead the way in faith, joy and love during this season.

Tony Wolfe is director of Pastor/Church Relations for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. He blogs at tonywolfe.net.